Le Menagier De Paris
Encyclopedia
Le Ménagier De Paris is a French
medieval guidebook from 1393 on a woman's proper behavior in marriage and running a household. It includes sexual advice, recipes, and gardening tips. Written in the (fictional) voice of an elderly husband addressing his younger wife, the text offers a rare insight into late medieval ideas of gender, household, and marriage. Important for its language and for its combination of prose and poetry, the book's central theme is wifely obedience.
The book was made available in English translation in its entirety only in 2009, published by Cornell UP; until that publication, the most complete translation in English was Eileen Power's 1928 The Goodman of Paris. Since earlier translations and editions have focused mainly on the recipes, the book is often incorrectly referred to as a medieval cookbook or an "advice and household hints book," and mined for the history of medieval cuisine
.
and authoritative texts to make its point; included are selections from and references to such tales and characters as Griselda and the tale of Melibee (known in English from Chaucer's "The Clerk's Prologue and Tale
" and "The Tale of Melibee
"), Lucretia
, and Susanna
.
(that is to say, books and manuscripts actually written in the medieval period), its many recipes include information on ingredients and preparation methods, but are short on quantifying anything; most ingredients are given without specifying amounts, and most cooking methods are listed, without specifying amount of heat and time of cooking.
Since this is a standard limitation on references of this type, modern scholars will often attempt extrapolation or trial-and-error experimentation to produce a redaction
of the recipe. When working with cookbooks, a "redaction" is generally a recipe, using the methods and ingredients of the original, that the modern author/scholar believes will produce a faithful (and, it is to be hoped, edible) reproduction of the product the original cook would have produced.
One should remember, however, that extant cookbooks of the period will not, generally, illustrate what was eaten by the very poor, who may have had a much more limited diet.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
medieval guidebook from 1393 on a woman's proper behavior in marriage and running a household. It includes sexual advice, recipes, and gardening tips. Written in the (fictional) voice of an elderly husband addressing his younger wife, the text offers a rare insight into late medieval ideas of gender, household, and marriage. Important for its language and for its combination of prose and poetry, the book's central theme is wifely obedience.
The book was made available in English translation in its entirety only in 2009, published by Cornell UP; until that publication, the most complete translation in English was Eileen Power's 1928 The Goodman of Paris. Since earlier translations and editions have focused mainly on the recipes, the book is often incorrectly referred to as a medieval cookbook or an "advice and household hints book," and mined for the history of medieval cuisine
Medieval cuisine
Medieval cuisine includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, a period roughly dating from the 5th to the 16th century...
.
Format
The book contains three main sections: how to attain the love of God and husband; how to "increase the prosperity of the household"; and how to amuse, socialize, and make conversation. Like many medieval texts, the argument relies heavily on exemplaExemplum
An exemplum is a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point.-Exemplary literature:...
and authoritative texts to make its point; included are selections from and references to such tales and characters as Griselda and the tale of Melibee (known in English from Chaucer's "The Clerk's Prologue and Tale
The Clerk's Prologue and Tale
The Clerk's Tale is the first tale of Group E in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. It is preceded by The Summoner's Tale and followed by The Merchant's Tale. The Clerk of Oxenford is a student of what would nowadays be considered philosophy or theology...
" and "The Tale of Melibee
The Tale of Melibee
The Tale of Melibee is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.This is the second tale told by Chaucer himself as a character within the tales...
"), Lucretia
Lucretia
Lucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by the Roman historian Livy and the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , her rape by the king's son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the...
, and Susanna
Susanna (Book of Daniel)
Susanna or Shoshana included in the Book of Daniel by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. It is one of the additions to Daniel, considered apocryphal by Protestants. It is listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England among the books which are included...
.
Culinary advice
The second section of the book, article five, contains the cookbook. Like most of the original resources on medieval cuisineMedieval cuisine
Medieval cuisine includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, a period roughly dating from the 5th to the 16th century...
(that is to say, books and manuscripts actually written in the medieval period), its many recipes include information on ingredients and preparation methods, but are short on quantifying anything; most ingredients are given without specifying amounts, and most cooking methods are listed, without specifying amount of heat and time of cooking.
Since this is a standard limitation on references of this type, modern scholars will often attempt extrapolation or trial-and-error experimentation to produce a redaction
Redaction
Redaction is a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined and subjected to minor alteration to make them into a single work. Often this is a method of collecting a series of writings on a similar theme and creating a definitive and coherent work...
of the recipe. When working with cookbooks, a "redaction" is generally a recipe, using the methods and ingredients of the original, that the modern author/scholar believes will produce a faithful (and, it is to be hoped, edible) reproduction of the product the original cook would have produced.
Remedies
As is common, for cookbooks from early historical period authors, many of the recipes are provided as remedies for common complaints. This is due to the crossover, in medieval works, between herbalism, medicine, and cooking; at times, there appears to be no real difference between them, as books for cooking will include information on herbalism and medicine, and vice versa, to the point where it is hard to determine, at times, which of the above was the primary purpose of the book.Recipes
Le Menagier lincludes a variety of different types of recipes; soups, preparations for meats, eggs, fish, sauces, beverages, pastry, tarts, and so on. Despite the popular conception of medieval food being, merely, "meat on a stick," Le Menagier shows us a staggering variety of foods available to the medieval eater.One should remember, however, that extant cookbooks of the period will not, generally, illustrate what was eaten by the very poor, who may have had a much more limited diet.
Other important medieval books about european gastronomy
- Llibre de Sent Soví
- Llibre del Coch
- Com tayllaràs devant un senyor
See also
- Medieval CuisineMedieval cuisineMedieval cuisine includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, a period roughly dating from the 5th to the 16th century...
- The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Knight OpenedThe Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Knight OpenedThe Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt. Opened, first printed in 1669, is a 17th century English cookbook and an excellent resource of the types of food that were eaten by persons of means in the early 17th century...
- ApiciusApiciusApicius is the title of a collection of Roman cookery recipes, usually thought to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century AD and written in a language that is in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin....